A.Word.A.Day

AWADmail Issue 559

A Weekly Compendium of Feedback on the Words in A.Word.A.Day and Tidbits about Words and Language

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How were the five words connected with the number 19? Tom Kuffel wins
the Email of the Week prize One Up! for concisely listing the connections, but other
readers came up with other links that I had not thought of. Thanks to all
for participating.

The link to nineteen in this week's words (Monday's was a given) was
that suffragist was the 19th Amendment
to the US Constitution; bromide involves the nineteenth element (potassium);
tinnient contains all the letters used in the word nineteen; and the word
extraterritoriality has nineteen letters.
-Tom Kuffel, Warren, Michigan (tom.kuffel us.army.mil)

It was the 19th amendment to the constitution of the USA that gave the right
to vote to women. It was also in 1919 that this passed in the US Congress.
-Abel Ferreira, Williamstown, Canada (aferreira kogitechnik.com)

Tinnient: There are a record 19 bells in the ring of Christ Church Cathedral
Dublin (video);Article 19
of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights applies the principle of
extraterritoriality.
-Michael Tremberth, St Erth, Cornwall, UK (michaelt4two googlemail.com)

The word bromide makes one think of the Gershwin tune, the Babbit and the
Bromide (video), which has 19 letters.
-Victor Lund, Minneapolis, Minnesota (vlund mahoney-law.com)

TINNIENT can be written with 19 strokes.
-Adam Mason, Waterboro, Maine (adam.j.mason gmail.com)

Ah, but modern golf course design is not only slowing down the game,
and scaring off new players, it is also damaging this fine old expression.

More and more really top end clubs include a 19th hole, to settle bets,
when contestants finish the normal round tied. I have personally seen one,
and have heard of another half-dozen -- including one 14-hole which is
a very odd, one family, golf course, where a "round" is the original 13
holes, and the 14/19th was added for the purpose described above.

Plus, a few courses have added an extra hole, which allows one hole to be
taken entirely out of rotation for serious refurbishment.

All that said, I expect 19th hole will keep the meaning described, except
at the very few venues described above.

In my youth, I thought suffrage was an archaism for suffering; little did I
know of "passion", then. This made me wonder what possessed suffragists to
wish suffering upon themselves. Of course, I eventually learned the meaning of
the word; women wanting the right to vote made perfect sense to my young
mind. When I attained voting age however, I learned the true meaning of
suffering from disambiguating the quadrennial US presidential polylemma.
I now choose the least of all evils with great "passion".

I'll never forget an episode of The Man Show
where they secretly filmed people
signing a petition to end women's suffrage. Not wanting to see their fellow
women suffer, many signed. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. What a
difference a good vocabulary makes.

I encountered a totally different meaning of this word
in a video game. In Japan, a bromide is a celebrity photo.
I figured it came
from the English term and must have something to do with handing out the
same photos so often that they are like a cliche. The word actually comes
from the use of bromide paper to print these photos and now applies to
any celeb pictures of that type. Similar to an actor's "glossy" in English.

No doubt many readers from the UK will write to mention the reputed
anaphrodisiac properties of bromide and its alleged use by the British
Army on its own men. One of my favourite lines delivered by the late, great
Humphrey Lyttelton on the BBC radio programme "I'm sorry I haven't a clue",
not long before his death in 2008 at the age of 86, went something like this:
"In the army they used to put bromide in our tea to suppress our sex
drive... I'm still wondering when it's supposed to kick in."
The delightfully written snopes.com article on the subject
explains some of the origins
of the myth.

The root of this word reminded me of a character in one of my favorite
musicals A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. One of Lycus's
courtesans was named Tintinnabula and her performance was characterized by
many bells, cymbals, and other tinkling devices. After her dance Pseudolus
comments, "Do you have anything a little quieter?"

Marc Williams, Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania

From: Nils Andersson (Nilsphone aol.com)
Subject: Number 19

Number 19 has an interesting property. If you divide 1 by 19, you get as a
decimal number 0.05263157894736842105263157894737... Note that it repeats
after 18 digits.

Rearranging this to take out the 18 digits and not starting with zero you
get 526315789473684210. Multiplying this number by any number 1-18 will
produce the same sequence, only starting at different point. Numbers 7
and 17 have similar properties.

I was visiting England in 1985 when the song "19"
(video) became popular. The writer,
Paul Hardcastle was comparing his own life at 19 to those of the soldiers
featured: "...what struck me was how young the soldiers were: the documentary
said their average age was 19. I was out having fun in pubs and clubs
when I was 19, not being shoved into jungles and shot at." The title
"19" comes from a documentary's claim that the average age of an American
combat soldier in the war was 19, as compared to World War II's 26. The
source for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, shows a large number of deaths
(38%) were ages 19 or 20. The song is known for its "stuttering" refrain:
"N-n-n-n-nineteen".

Prof. Emeritus Tom Priestly, Edmonton, Canada

From: Pamela Capraru (pam1988 sympatico.ca)
Subject: 19

In the card game of cribbage, a perfect hand earns 29 points -- and 19
(along with 25, 26, and 27) is an impossible score to achieve with any
combination of four cards dealt plus the pone, a card turned up from the
pack. When laying down and counting a hand with no points, players will
often say "19" meaning zero.

Pamela Capraru, Toronto, Canada

From: Jack L. Yohay (jlyohay nava21.ne.jp)
Subject: nineteen

A complete Jewish lunar calendar cycle is 19 years. To adjust the
approximately 354-day lunar year to the solar, a 13th month, Adar 2,
is added seven times within each 19 years.

I went to barber school in 1973. We had to learn to do a man's shave (as
in old-timey pictures) even though no one was getting them anymore. Our
being able to pass state boards depended on doing a proper shave. Everyone
hated shaving.

So-- there are 12 STROKES to a professional shave. Hand positions are
crucial. There's even a "backhanded" stroke.

We saved the "13th stroke" for last... a joke to the client if he was
mean. (13th being the cutting of his throat : )
(sometimes -- the client wasn't privy to the joke : P )

Geno Centofanti, Columbus,Ohio

From: Zelda Dvoretzky (zeldahaifa gmail.com)
Subject: 19th hole

There also are many bars in downtown areas that call themselves The Office where executives stop
for a quick one after work and, if called by anxious spouses can say in
all honesty, "Honey, I'm at the office."

Zelda Dvoretzky, Haifa, Israel

Never underestimate human ingenuity. Near universities
you can find bars, called, what else, but The Library.
-Anu Garg

From: Roland Philipp (roland philipp.co.at)
Subject: 19

In the Bahá'í-Faith 19 is a holy number and appears in the teachings in
many different connections. For example, the Bahá'í calendar is based on
19 months with 19 days each.

This word instantly brought to mind its unlikely use as a musical theatre
lyric. Stephen Sondheim's "Pacific Overtures" features a song by five
foreign admirals converging to open up Japan in the mid 1800s.
(lyrics, video)

Jim Phillips, San Francisco, California

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

Words differently arranged have different meanings, and meanings differently
arranged have a different effect. -Blaise Pascal